Pirate Bay Four get a year in prison

Appeal underway, final decision could take years

Shares

The Pirate Bay four – Peter Sunde ('brokep'), Fredrik Neij ('TiAMO'), Gottfrid Svartholm ('Anakata') and Carl Lundström – have all been found guilty of 'assisting in making copyright content available' with each being sentenced to a year in prison.

The final verdict in the Pirate Bay the case was delivered earlier this morning, with the judge delivering custodial sentences in what is sure to be considered a landmark ruling for years to come.

Pirate Bay continues

Sunde has already said that an appeal is due and that the ultimate decision in the case is still "possibly years away."

The Guardian is reporting that alongside the jail sentences, the website owners have also been fined $3.6m (£2.4m).

The accused were actually charged with making 33 files for sharing illegally on the website.

Because of this, the Pirate Bay four will have to compensate around 17 different companies including the four major music companies - Sony BMG, Universal, EMI and Warner.

In the meantime, The Pirate Bay website is set to continue to operate as usual, said Sunde.

On The Pirate Bay website, the founders have announced that there will be a press conference about today's events at 1PM Swedish time.